A proposal to require street vendors selling food and drinks during second-line parades to have city permits inched closer to reality Wednesday as a committee recommended the New Orleans City Council turn it into law.

A member of the Young Men Olympian Junior Benevolent Association, Inc., buy a beverage from a street vendor before the start of the group's 128th anniversary parade in Uptown in New Orleans, La., Sunday, Sept. 23, 2012. MATTHEW HINTON / THE TIMES-PICAYUNE

To make it more palatable to sidewalk entrepreneurs selling everything from water to barbecue, the Governmental Affairs Committee also asked that the council halve the proposed permit fee, from $50 to $25.

"I would think it's a wonderful way to help small business people," said Councilwoman Diana Bajoie, a committee member.

For more than a year, Mayor Mitch Landrieu's administration and social aid and pleasure clubs have been hammering out an approach to regulating vendors along Sunday routes. Detractors see the permits as an affront to New Orleans' traditionally laissez-faire culture. But supporters see permits as a way of codifying a rich tradition by giving it the imprimatur of law.

The council committee, which included council members Susan Guidry, Kristin Gisleson Palmer and Bajoie, agreed with the mayor's office Wednesday. But not everyone saw it that way. Deborah Cotton, who told the committee she represented several vendors, asked for a delay. She said some people "feel this is punishing folks for trying to make a living."

But Ben Smith, who has worked as a vendor for the past seven years, disagreed.

"The issue is we are illegal," he said. If caught by police, "we have to pay a $500 fine. If we can't pay the fine, there is no other choice but jail."

The permits will not extend to selling alcohol, said Scott Hutcheson, the mayor's advisory on cultural economy. That will still be banned unless vendors go through the more onerous process of obtaining a temporary alcohol permit.

Despite City Hall's reputation for red tape, Hutcheson said the street vendor permits will be streamlined, requiring nothing more than an identification card, an application and $25.